, 1887-10-19

I should never lift my head again to find
her great black eyes glowing from behind
the tea urn. / had not been unhappy with
Zobeide, but 1 question that l was in a
state to know the quality of the happi-
ness she gave me. l had grown to think
the thoughts she gave me: that was all.
81 simply told Celeste, my lady's
maid, that 1 would go to her apartments;
but Celeste, with 1.-THE desire probably to
save me a detested sight, ran up the pol
ished stairs, her little slippers making a
loud noise in the silent house.
with a shrek Celeste staggered half
way down the stairs, her face like chalk,
her eyes wildly staring.
ooh, monsieur! don't go in, if you
value your hfe!'
81 pushed her aside, and entered Lady
Harcourt's boudoir, hung with the pale
green silk curtains she had chosen be-
cause it would remind her of the Jungle
where we first met. The old overpower-
ing, indefinable odor met me at the
threshold, but 1 stepped across her tiger
skin rug and felt every vein in my body
congealing with horror.
my wife's little gray silk bonnet and
scarf lay on the floor nea the sofa where
she reclined, her hair, unbound, stream
ing in disorder over the NOISY green car
pet. She was quite dead, put had per-
haps breathed her last only a moment be-
fore 1 found her.
son the bosom which had pillowed my
mead SO often lay the head of a monster
boa. His loathsome body wrapped tightly
about the luckless girl had squeezed her
to death. In a fervor of gladness over
her return or madness from hunger, he
had killed the woman who fondled him
when not with me.
81 managed to retain my sense some
how, and left the room, so permeated
with poison. Down stairs once more, l
breathed freer than for many days. 1
leaned out of the window and looked at
the old stars which had twinkled through
every hour of my miserable misspent life.
l realized all at once how base and mac
tive 1 had become, a dreamer; but was 1
to blame?
"The old butler kindly led me to my
room, begging me to drink of the glass
he forced to my lips, saying that all
should be done well.
81 drank, and, throwing myself on the
bed, 1 lost my mind in a dreary and
dreadful maze which melted into a long
sleep. 1 knew in that sleep that the
python q been Strangled and the rumor
given forth that Lady Harcourt had fallen
lead from heart disease.
1.-The end of it all came, of course, and
l went through it properly, l heard after
wards; but l think my body had acted
without soul for once.
81 went to Switzerland-a place hap
PLY free from snakes, where / recovered
my old mental poise and got back to a
point where l could reflect upon all that
fearful time which had seemed a sort of
heaven to me while it lasted-my strange
irresponsible life with Zobeide, a charmer
of serpents, a ruler of meni
'Now you know, Strahan, why 1 do
not care to look on such sights. 1t I'M
nerves me to look on a boa more than to
meet a wild beast face to face. Don't
laugh"
Taught 1 was never further from it at
any moment of my lifel
Harcourt's experience only strength
ened me in my theory about the sym
pathy between snakes and-some people.
1t is always a who charms
snakes, you know; never a man. 1 won
der why?-Annie Robertson Noxon in
L~ippincott's Magazine.